Lorna Goodison
Lorna Goodison (born 1947) is a Jamaican poet, a leading West Indian writer of the generation born after World War II, currently dividing her time between Jamaica and Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she teaches at the University of Michigan. Life Goodison was born in Kingston, Jamaica, one of nine siblings, and was educated at St. Hugh's High School, a leading Anglican high school in Jamaica) and at the Jamaica School of Art, before going to New York City to study at the Art Students League of New York. She had also been writing poetry since her teenage years; some early poems appeared anonymously in the Jamaica Gleaner. In her 20s, back in Jamaica, she taught art and worked in advertising and public relations before deciding to pursue a career as a professional writer. She began to publish under her own name in the Jamaica Journal, and to give readings at which she built up an appreciative audience. In the early 1990s, Goodison began teaching part of the year at various North American universities, including the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan. She has also exhibited her paintings internationally. Her own artwork is usually featured on the covers of her books. Writing Goodison describes poetry as "a dominating, intrusive tyrant. It’s something I have to do--a wicked force". Poet and literary scholar Edward Baugh says that "one of Goodison’s achievements is that her poetry inscribes the Jamaican sensibility and culture on the text of the world". Apart from issues of home and exile, her work also addresses the power of art to explore and reconcile opposites and contradictions in the Caribbean historical experience. Recognition Her 1986 collection, I Am Becoming My Mother, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, American division. In 1999, Goodison was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal by the Institute of Jamaica for her contributions to literature. Publications Poetry *''Tamarind Season: Poems''. Kingston, Jamaica: Institute of Jamaica, 1980. *''I Am Becoming My Mother''. London: New Beacon, 1986. *''Heartease''. London: New Beacon, 1988. *''Selected Poems''. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1992. *''To Us, All Flowers are Roses''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1995. *''Turn, Thanks: Poems''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999. *''Guinea Woman: New and selected poems''. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 2000. *''Travelling Mercies''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2001. *''Controlling the Silver: Poems''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2005. *''Golden Grove: New and selected poems''. Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 2006. *''Oracabessa''. Manchester, UK, & New York: Carcanet, 2013. **also published as To Make Various Sort of Black. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2011. Short fiction *''Baby Mother and the King of Swords''. Essex, UK: Longman, 1990. *''By Love Possessed: Stories''. New York: Amistad, 2011; Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2001. *''Fool-fool Rose is leaving Labour-in-Vain Savannah: Short stories''. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle, 2005. *''I Come Through: Stories''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2009. Non-fiction *''From Harvey River: A memoir of my mother and her island''. New York: Armistad, 2008 2007 ** also published as From Harvey River: A memoir of my mother and her people. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2008. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Laura Goodison, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 18, 2014. See also * List of Caribbean poets References External links ;Poems *Lorna Goodison at Caribbean Poetry (11 poems) ;Audio/video *Lorna Goodison (b. 1947) at The Poetry Archive ;About *Lorna Goodison at Carcanet Press *Lorna Goodison at Voices from the Gaps *Lorna Goodison (Jamaica, 1947) at Poetry International *[http://caribbeanreviewofbooks.com/subject/lorna-goodison/ Caribbean Review of Books page on Goodison] *"She Comes Through: Lorna Goodison is one of the best writers you've never read," National Post Category:University of Michigan faculty Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Jamaican poets Category:Jamaican women writers Category:caribbean poets Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:21st-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets